My JITLI Story.
Now after a month of Jitli’s program I’m writing my jitli story at my home which feels the same at jitli, like home. first of all Jitli stands for Jacobs International Teen Leadership Institute. This program took place in Israel during July, 40 kids of different places, religions, cultures, opinions and backgrounds,these 40 kids gathered in one family called Jitli, before we come to jitli we thought that Jitli is all about politics and proving that your side is the right one in the Israeli – Palestine struggle. We came with lots of excitement that was showed in the first day of Jitli, at the airport, the Israeli participants wrote sings and brought balloons and they were screaming so th SD group can see them, I were in that group, my name is Reham Alsana, I’m an Arab Muslim girl who came with that kind of excitement and also with lots of shyness that I used to carry with me.as we learned in Jitli there are lots of stories to a person, and my version of Jitli story is the one that I will never forget and always will tell, it’s about the visit of Yad Vashim’s Museum, the one and only visit that really makes a person thankful for being alive to actually see it with his eyes. This museum has pictures from the disaster of the Holocaust,before we get inside the museum one dear friend from SD group told me “you will see lots of people crying”, and I really could see that before being inside and I was thinking and remembering what we studied about it at school, according to what I learned I thought it can’t be that bad. but when we first stepped in the museum there were lots of pictures of kids and that what really shocked me about the disaster,we saw lots of videos of the Holocaust survivors but there’s one that me and Ella watched,a dear friend of SD group, it was about an old lady telling her story and she was crying Ella said a comment that made both of us so emotional, she said ” this what makes me so proud of being a Jew “, this comment brought tears to our eyes, I wanted to comfort her by being by her side and hug her just like what a good friend would do. we had Jitli time after the tour in the museum and it had lots of emotions, and everybody had something to say to comfort our Jews friends. In Jitli always say what you think so you never say “what if” and regret about it.
I can’t wish anything to change Jitli except if it would’ve been longer. Now after Jitli is gone for my age, I can say that Jitli was for me an experience of growing up and be a more aware person, threw my shyness away, I can think wisely with no stereotypes and I can make wiser decisions,I’m so thankful that I went in this experience of life.